Hi,
Well I finally gave up on my 9800 Pro after many different methods of trying to get it to work I gave up. I've had to go back to my old geforce 4 mx440. I can't really use this card for too much longer, not running some of the games I would like to(ie. Oblivion). So I need some help choosing a new video card. I would either buy second hand or new. I'm only 14 so I don't have to much money to spend or els I would buy the new radeon 1950. I want something at least as good as a 9800 pro. I want to be able to play Oblivion smoothly rather then graphically on my Athlon XP 2600+ Barton and 512mb DDR 333. I am not interested what so ever in overclocking or modding etc.. I just want a 128mb, 256mb video card that's agp and is around as good or better then a radeon 9800 Pro. If you have a site that sells this video card or not still please reply with a suggestion. I'm looking to spend no more then $150 Australian dollars.(which probebly means second hand).If not juast 1 maybe a few card suggestion or mabey a list of all the ones nvidia or ati that are better then 9800 pro.
Thanks.

use gpureview.com to compare cards roughly
id say the x800 gto would be the better buy
if you shop around (not necessarily on ebay) you could get a brand new card for around that price, wholesalers sell cards at good prices....because they cut out the middlemen

Dude, seriously, even with say a X1950 pro agp your other system components (512mb non DDR ram, AthlonXP) you will still have a hard time getting any newer card to play a Game like Oblivion. Your old system is a major bottlneck. Start saving and get areal cheap x1600 or x1650 series card some run around 100 bucks US not sure the Austalian equivalent. I was in the same boat, stayed with a PIII for 6+years till i got around to s939 based systems. It sucks when your broke. If you really need something right now try a x1300 series or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102081 , this is probably the best budget card your system can at least take fully advantage of. I am not fammiliar with nvidia enough to recommend.

Thanks for the hints. My 512mb of ram is DDR lol. I was using a 800mhz Duron untill about a week ago when I bought a full system for $157 that had 2600+ Barton, 9800 pro, 1gig ddr ram, dvd burner, case,550w psu etc.. for $157AUD so less us but he forgot to put in half ram(idiot) so gave back $30 and then the 9800 pro broke. So i'm not very happy. Big waste of money because for all I know cpu is broken too because It came seperate from rest of computer and I have no thermal grease. He was an idiot he thought cpu was 2400+ Barton but that doesn't exist, bartons started at 2500+ then I searched number on the cpu in google and found it was 2600+. Even though ram and video card were bad cpu alone is worth the $127 I payed for it. Is an x1550 worth twice as much as a 9800 pro? Is it that much better?

I think I might lean towards the x1550 card it seems like everyone says it's a good card for only around $150. I thought 9800 Pro's were 256bit why is the x1550 only 128bit? How old is everyone on this site I feel dumb but I know more about this sort of stuff then everyone in my year at school so I assume you are all older them me. lol. I'm a noob. Other then jsut a good performance card I want one that will last. I don't often upgrade computers I think I'v had 4 different ones in my life, lol. intel 486 in like 2003, pentium 2 400 in 2004, duron untill a week ago and now 2600+. Is x1550 better then a geforce 6600gt because that's what my brother has and it's awsome.

Thanks for the hints. My 512mb of ram is DDR lol. I was using a 800mhz Duron untill about a week ago when I bought a full system for $157 that had 2600+ Barton, 9800 pro, 1gig ddr ram, dvd burner, case,550w psu etc.. for $157AUD so less us but he forgot to put in half ram(idiot) so gave back $30 and then the 9800 pro broke. So i'm not very happy. Big waste of money because for all I know cpu is broken too because It came seperate from rest of computer and I have no thermal grease. He was an idiot he thought cpu was 2400+ Barton but that doesn't exist, bartons started at 2500+ then I searched number on the cpu in google and found it was 2600+. Even though ram and video card were bad cpu alone is worth the $127 I payed for it. Is an x1550 worth twice as much as a 9800 pro? Is it that much better?

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it doesnt matter what the card costs
some brands charge more than others for cards with the exact same cores and specifications.

i dunno why it would only be 128bit...my shitty old X600 graphics card was 128 bit and its 7 years old, so i dont see how a NEW card could be 128bit and possibly be any good

I recon its a budget card, if i were you, id go 256bit and 256mb at the minimum and try and shop around for the highest core/memory speeds in your price range as possible. Also, some cards come pre overclocked so you may have to keep that in mind too.

Funny6 we came across the same item. Yes the x1550 will do you fine and at least has 128bit memory interface as apposed to 64bit x1300 cards. wish you could get it stateside.

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Very few of the x1300s are 64bit......

But either way other people are very correct here, your system will be a serious bottle neck.

As far as a video card to at least use for now, I would opt my vote for x800 if you can find one..

If not x1300, x1600, x1650... Anything around there, don't bother with a 512mb card if you can get a 256, you wont see anything for performance gains. But do make sure it is at least 128bit memory, the x800 should be 256bit..

Dealing with many questions like this, and being Aussie (knowing the prices) id say your best bet is the X1650 PRO IF you want HDR and stuff. Cheapest i can find is $172.

If you dont really care for HDR and lighting, X800/X850, no questions asked. Absolutely kills a 9800/6600GT. Even beats 6800 Ultra in some cases. Thatll probably be around the same price as the X1650 PRO

i dunno why it would only be 128bit...my shitty old X600 graphics card was 128 bit and its 7 years old, so i dont see how a NEW card could be 128bit and possibly be any good

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Not everything is about the bit rate. The 7600/X1650 series both use 128-bit and they beat the X800 series in some cases. Take the 9800 vs the 6600GT debate. They are basically equal...the 6600GT has better speeds, yet the 9800 has the 256 bit rate, yet they are almost the same in games. 64-bit is the thing that should be stayed away from; 128 isnt too bad. The reason the X600 was so crap was due to its 4 pipelines. Thats what ruined it.

The X1550 comes no where near the X800. The X1550 only has 4 pipes. Id say the 9800 vs X1550, they would be about equal, altho 9800 might be a little better. The only way the X1550 will win is because it has newer technology, like SM3.0

IMHO, its not really worth spending 130 on an X1550. It will probably be the same as the 9800. If you really want a major performance increase, spend a little extra and go the X800 or X1650.

i would say x800gto AGP... i have the PCI-e vers and i am very pleased!!! x1600xt is way to weak....and all cards from that GPU, or similar models ( except x1650XT i think )

X800GTO can play every game today with maximum details, and even AA , so i that's my suggestion

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I'd say x800GTO as well. I unlocked the extra 4 pipelines (to a total of 16) with Dolph's flashing utility and I was able to get decent framrates for CS:S with everything turned on (including HDR, which seemed like it was working with AA turned on).

I'd recommend that you save some money and upgrade the cpu+ram, but if it's not possible I'd suggest the x1650 (I've always preferred ATI over nVidia for some reason )

OR Get the X1650XT, or X1600PRO ICEQII GDDRIII 128MB (Performs better than the 9800 guys, if you haven't realised yet 9800 doesn't support SM3.0 as well as a heap of other things).

However, with a system of such date, something will fail in around a year or so. So... get yourself a new and cheap AM2 motherboard + X1600PRO ICEQII GDDRIII (UMART) (cheap as chips), processor, RAM, etc. A new HDD would also help as that system's HDD is bound to fail, older HDDs may cause stutters as well.

Like, yeh get a job when the easter holidays comes, make some money (like around $1000), then you can build a system. Considering that you want to study for school properly in a few years time (*DOOM DOOM DOOOOM!!!* HSC!!!-wait thats if john howard isnt a retard and decides to get rid of it), just buy something that can run what you want and then wait after uni to buy a new system!!!

P.S.=> You probably want MORE POWER than that has by default, but I figured what the hey... it's cheap, & definitely in your price range (1/3 of what you have ready) & an upgrade over what you had before... but, if you can afford more? Go for it... apk

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the responces but in the end I decided to sell my 2600+ and 512mb of ddr ram on ebay and then my brother found this shop that sells brand new am2 64 3800+ for $146 and an asus mboard with nvidia chip and onboard geforce 6150 for $105 and then I will buy 2x 256mb of ddr2 533 ram on ebay(2x256 so I can do dual channel) for $45. I can afford that because I can sell cpu on ebay for $115 and Ram for $60 and I had some money that I was going to buy vid card with. So I'd say AMD Athlon 64 3800+ ddrII, a board with on board gforce 6150 and 512mb of ddr2 ram for $300 is a fairly good deal. The 2600+ in worth nearly as much as my brand new 3800+ I guess because they don't sell anymore and people that already have socket a 462 board want a cpu for it and ddr ram is worth more then ddr2 probably for same reason. Now I will save up for another 512mb of ram to make 1gb($40) and a new pci-e video card.